Nokuthula Ngwenyama
Jewish News
|
August 23, 2017
Taking place in Sedona and Phoenix, the festival brings local and international musicians and composers together in a series of four concerts from Sept. 3-17. Each concert is performed twice, once in Phoenix at the Cutler-Plotkin Jewish Heritage Center and a second time at the Sedona Creative Life Center. Tickets are $25 per concert or $75 for all four.
The festival’s founder and
executive director is violinist Moshe Buskshpan. Born in Israel,
Buskshpan moved to the U.S. in 1976 to pursue a master’s degree in
violin performance at Northern Illinois University.
Buskshpan said he began
organizing the Red Rocks Music Festival and nonprofit to fill a void
after a festival in Flagstaff was discontinued. The Red Rocks Music
Festival often features prominent Jewish musicians.
The festival’s first year was
headlined by Shlomo Mintz, an Israeli conductor and violinist. Buskshpan
said Mintz will again appear at next year’s festival.
This year, though, the first
concert is “Americana Treasured Masterpieces,” featuring the Dueling
Piano Divas, Andria Fennig and Ashley Snavley. Fennig and Snavley play
together on a single piano in “four hands” style.
“There are times where we have a little bit of gymnastics or choreography going on,” Fennig said.
The duo performs works by
American composers Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland,
George Gershwin and Edward MacDowell. Performances take place at 3 p.m.
on Sunday, Sept. 3 at the Cutler-Plotkin Jewish Heritage Center, 122 E.
Culver St., Phoenix; and at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 8 at the Sedona
Creative Life Center, 333 Schnebly Hill Road, Sedona.
The second concert is “World
Music,” featuring Nikola Djurica on clarinet; David Ehrlich and Anna
Kazepides on violin; Nokuthula Ngwenyama on viola; and Jan Simiz on
cello. Ante Grgin will conduct in his Arizona premiere. The group
performs klezmer and Balkan music. This is Djurica’s second appearance
at the festival.
“This clarinetist is coming back really by popular demand,” Buskshpan said.
Performances are at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 6 in Phoenix and at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 9 in Sedona.
The third concert is “Classical
Jewels,” featuring the same performers from “World Music” with the
addition of Michael Kazepides on double bass and Teresa Ehrlich on
piano. They will perform Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A Minor and
Shubert’s Piano Quintet in A Minor. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. on
Thursday, Sept. 7 in Phoenix and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 10 in
Sedona.
The fourth and final concert is
“Tempest to the Silver Age,” featuring Mikhail Yanovitsky on piano. He
will perform works by Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms and Scriabin. The
Jewish Yanovitsky, a St. Petersburg native, started playing piano as a
child; his first teacher was his mother. He graduated from the Leningrad
Special School of Music and the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire. He
currently teaches at Temple University in Philadelphia. Performances are
at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 16 in Sedona and at 3 p.m. on Sunday,
Sept. 17 in Phoenix.
Comment by email:
Comment by email:
Thank you! Playing Sonoran Storm tomorrow at Clos Pegas for Music
in the Vineyards. Hard to keep up with everything on top of doing,
always appreciate the shout outs! All the best, Thula [Nokuthula Ngwenyama]
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